LET HOMER BE HOMER

I was appalled at producer Robert Halmi Sr.’s brazen assertion regarding “The Odyssey”: “A lot of people say they read it in school, but they’re lying. Nobody read the damned thing in school. It’s a title everyone recognizes but no one has read” (“This One’s Rated BC,” by David Gritten, Feb. 16).

As a teacher of literature in the LAUSD, I have had the exquisite pleasure of exposing young minds to Homer’s poetry for the last 10 years, both “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey.” Not only do students actually read Homer, they are moved by him, transformed by him, elevated by him; indeed, they never forget him.

Director Andrei Konchalovsky views “The Odyssey” as an archetypal story, and I would maintain that this archetypal element in Homer is the very source of “The Odyssey’s” enduring power. In addition to being utterly mistaken, Halmi is irresponsible in making such comments while trying to bring a credible adaptation of this great poem to television.

Halmi suggests that people will be hungry to see a story of such high quality but that “they can go back to the junk the next day.” How about creating and airing high-quality work so that people won’t go back to junk the next day? Those of us toiling in the American public school classroom are engaged in a desperate struggle to elevate the spirits, minds and deeds of young people who have so very few lofty models upon which to base their own various destinies; our daily goal is to raise these kids above the bankruptcy and muck of our televised reality and to endow them with a lasting understanding of how to stay risen.

Finally, Gritten is incorrect when he informs us that Odysseus was “condemned by the gods for his arrogance to wander the seas for eternity, never to return home.” In fact, from the very beginning of the story it is clear that Odysseus will return home and restore order to his kingdom. He is thwarted by only one god, Poseidon, whose son, Polyphemus the Cyclops, Odysseus had blinded as part of a daring escape from the monster’s cave.

One could safely argue that “The Odyssey” is really a story about xenos (hospitality), the ancient Greek value of inviting the stranger to one’s table without fear or question. Homer, true to the values of his culture, invites the reader in, without undue difficulty, to feast on the glory of his words. There is no reason to pander or dumb-down this material in order to lend it universal appeal; it verily reeks thereof already. I hope and pray that the creators do the old poet justice.

BARRY SMOLIN

Los Angeles